Combines employ feeder mechanisms to transfer crop material from the combine crop-harvesting portion or region to the combine crop-threshing portion or region. Combine feeder mechanisms typically include a feeder housing and a chain-driven feeder drum rotatably mounted in the housing. Elongated drag bars (i.e., so-called "slats"), fixedly connected to the feeder mechanism chains, are employed to move the crop material through the feeder mechanism to the combine crop-threshing region.
For a variety of reasons, from time to time, drag bars break free from the chains to which they are mounted. That is, either drag bars or chains or both fatigue and fail at the region or along the joint where conventionally connected together. Such fatigue generally results in undesirable combine "down time", and can result in severe damage to combine feeder drum elements.
One source of the fatigue problem has been traced to the relatively inflexible construction employed for conventionally connecting combine feeder mechanism chains and drag bars together. Another source of the fatigue problem has been traced to relatively high localized stresses or loads which are from time to time generated in the connecting structures where the drag bars are joined to the chains. For example, relatively high localized stresses or loads are generated when chains and/or drag bars override relatively large particles of crop material or foreign matter carried along with the crop material and introduced into the combine feeder mechanism.